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Message started by raydawg on 05/13/15 at 04:54:29

Title: Temperature readings
Post by raydawg on 05/13/15 at 04:54:29

With infrared technology cheap now, does anyone know of, or has tried rigging a sensor to measure our motor temp?
Seems like it's doable, yes?

Title: Re: Temperature readings
Post by Dave on 05/13/15 at 05:13:29

Handheld infrared stuff is cheap and affordable and provides a good diagnostic tool for mechanics. And professional race teams use it to monitor tire temperatures while on the track...all really useful stuff for them.

For our bikes.....normal eletric sensors and gauges are more practical. My Trail Tech Vapor had a temperature gauge....I have no idea how accurate it was. I mounted the sender to the left rear cylinder stud at the head.

On the back roads in the summer cruising around at 30-50 mph the head temperature was around 240 degrees. Interstate travel at speeds up to 70 mph would get up to 280 degrees. When the temperature climbs over 90.....on the interstate or stuck in downtown traffic I got close to 300 degrees a few times.

Once I did the Kawasaki pulley conversion - the 70 mph cruise temperatures dropped 20 degrees as a result of the lower rpm.

My new speedometer does not have a temperature gauge...I am going to miss it. (I like knowing what my engine is doing).

Title: Re: Temperature readings
Post by raydawg on 05/13/15 at 05:55:29

Wow Dave, that seems hot. Isn't heat the biggest factor in lubrication failure?

Title: Re: Temperature readings
Post by Dave on 05/13/15 at 06:34:18

The temperature I listed was the cylinder head just a few inches from the combustion chamber....it is not the crankcase and/or oil temperature. I also did not check the gauge to see how accurate it was......the temperature reading the Trailtech showed for the air temperature was always reading about 15 degrees high.

Air cooled engines do run hotter than water cooled ones....that is why most modern bikes that are performance oriented are water cooled.

Title: Re: Temperature readings
Post by Oldfeller on 05/13/15 at 06:41:08

That is why some of us use Rotella Synthetic -- because nothing we can ever do will ever cause the RotSyn oil to fail.

Dave still uses Dino, which is fine -- historically, we have very few lubrication failures that were not caused by running low on oil in the first place (or else by running gas contaminated oil from a bad vac petcock -- durn those blasted vacsuckers).

Title: Re: Temperature readings
Post by Serowbot on 05/13/15 at 06:59:00

On air-cooled bikes in the desert,... I believe ignorance is the best policy... :-?...

Title: Re: Temperature readings
Post by Arnold on 05/13/15 at 07:07:39

"Alive in Tucson" - Last Man on Earth.

Title: Re: Temperature readings
Post by verslagen1 on 05/13/15 at 07:17:59

You can use these...

http://www.trailtech.net/media/catalog/product/cache/1/small_image/135x/9df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/b/l/blackTTO_degf_15.jpg
http://suzukisavage.com/cgi-bin/YaBB.pl?num=1361141824

You can get them to fit the sparkplug or a headbolt. They also fit on the front pressure test plug.

Title: Re: Temperature readings
Post by Gary_in_NJ on 05/13/15 at 09:43:48

I would,'t worry too much about operating temps in the mid-200's. Air/oil cooled engines run high CHT's.

On the Lycoming O-320 in my homebuilt aircraft the green operating zone is between 250 to 375F, yellow is 375 to 430F and red is above that. The CHT Thermocouple is mounted fairly deep in the head, very close to the point of combustion. I know that for engines where there isn't a probe mount there are sparkplug adapters that mount between the sparkplug and the cylinder head.

BTW, EGT's run 1,100 to 1,600F with 1,300 +/- 100 being normal.

Title: Re: Temperature readings
Post by justin_o_guy2 on 05/13/15 at 10:14:45

Cheap, affordable, yeah, accurate?
I've got a HF one, sometimes it tells me something that just doesn't make sense, but it also sometimes seems right. I have 2 thermometer I check my
Basal temperature with, digital, same company, sometimes they agree, sometimes they are .3 or so degrees apart.